Wow, that road series went a lot better than I expected. I am choosing to focus on that rather than the lack of Colorado Rockies trade deadline news, which was covered much more colorfully on this very website over the weekend.
Hopefully, we can see some of that first-half-home Colorado Rockies as the Chicago Cubs come to Coors Field. The two teams have a surprising number of shared players between them, so let’s look into their shared history and rank the top five players in both franchises.
Total Number of shared players: 84
Exclusively Colorado Rockies and Cubs players:
Manny Corpas
Mario Encarnacion
Tony Wolters
I know that I rarely write much in this section but I just wanted to point out that Manny Corpas is the best player to show up on this exclusivity list. Corpas was one of the best pitchers in the 2007 Colorado Rockies season, even getting a win in the NLCS. He doesn’t appear on the list, so I just wanted to take the time to point him out here.
Honorable Mentions:
Jeromy Burnitz
Tyler Chatwood
Manny Corpas
Wade Davis
Carlos Gonzalez
DJ LeMahieu
Jason Marquis
Here are the top five players to suit up for both the Colorado Rockies and Chicago Cubs
5. Neifi Perez
Neifi Perez appeared in the Top 5 Rockies-Giants list all the way back in April, making this the second list that he has appeared on. Perez was an international signee by the Rockies in their first year of existence. Perez was never the king of the bat, despite leading the league in triples in 1999, but he was a wizard with the glove. He even won a Gold Glove with 2.1 dWAR in 2000. Perez joined the Cubs in 2004 after being traded by the Giants. His defense reached its peak with Chicago accruing 2.7 dWAR in 2005.
The Cubs traded Perez to Detroit in 2006. He was a rare poor bat at Coors Field, but his glove more than made up for it. Perez was a trade piece who tried to help border teams compete. He has appeared before … and we have a lot more to go.